TRAVELING ON - - - THE CONTINENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2685, 30 August 1905, Page 79

TRAVELING ON - - - - THE CONTINENT.

By E. S. Gbosskaxx, M.A,

(For the Witness.) I. Que les temps sont charges.

■ The English have always been a nation of travellers. Away back in Saxon times tbe-re were bold travellers making their way slowly and painfully through the wilds cf Germany and the deoayir^ splendours of the Holy Roman Empire. It was always Home, tiic-n, that was the lodestar, amd no doubt the wanderers flattered themselves that their longing to "go on pilgrimage*' was entirely a matter of rtligious sentiment, whereas, in fact, it was the Teutonic impulse to &cc, to know, to move on and on.\ Gradually the religious excuse began to weai'out, but instead of being less travelling, there was more than ever ; and a good deal of it was undisguised!}- for tbe sake of adventure, or trade, or knowledge, or war, as the case might be. These were the clays that our romanticists revel in, when the heroes of Scott's mediaeval romances flourished, and the White Company Was in its prims— the days of tb.2 "Cloister ami tho Hearth " What a .lively lot of experiences they had, these" knights marmour, and hew extremely tarns we have grown &ince th?n. They encountered gangs of armed ruffians lurking m mountain passes, lonely inns, rescued lovely damsels of high degiee, conversed aiidi supped with mysterious monies', and heiinits, and disguised princes, received warning letters in invisible ink, were feasted in gorg^ou? halls and thrown into dismal dimgeons by turn?, and finally returned to their native land with an amount of experience which only the toughest of constitutions could h.ive siuvh cd. Instead of armed gangs the only robbers now ait the street vendors, who palm off on th? unwary foreigner pill advertisements fur post-cards and brass jewel l ery for gold. The Alps a-re tua-

nel'.cd; the "urns are gu-niinleed In Cook nnd Ho as. Monks mid he units luu " vanished, nnd piinccs seem to keep to tlsem«elve"«. Im Lsible irk ]ms gor.e out of fashion. The castles arc convcited into ivv-grcrt-n rains, to "which travelleis me cl fretted by finger pc-is. While the most famous 01 c carefully ticketed, "ScbJossHof ,"' ' Friedrichsbau," "Eliz.ibethsthor.*" a port oi. by no meams poitentous, greets the stiaiigei v ith a demand for 6d close to the poitcnllis, and the matron who in the age of chivohy would have conducted him to the hall or to the dungeon merely proffers him picture post-c»rds for ''zehnpfennig" oi "cinq centimes."' accoi cling to the countiy. You may explore the dungeons if yon like, but to-dny there is no thrill to be got out of them. They arc 'ill remaikably alike. The^ modern knight meets his lovely lady in a railway carriage, falls in love iiith hei eight hours, hslps herewith her luggage at the Customs house, and if very profoundly smitten buys Lor a. cup of coffee or a flask of light Italian wine from the vendors who peiambulate the station. Arrived at their destination- the hero and the heroine part with equanimity for ever, and he has a char-ce of falling in love with somebody el*e the next day. These "amons de voyage" cm liavd'y be expected to last irore than a few hours.

Well, after the age of the wandeiing knights came that of the "grand toiu." when a ! l accomplished youths iinishad their education by a visit to Itoly. It began even before Rhikespeare wrote "Homekeeping youth' have ever homely wits.'' Milton was the srreatest of these student

tourists, ard he has left many traces of his travel 5 -. The name of Vi'llombrosu always calls up to an English mind his famous 'mes : — Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks Iv Yalloinbrosa, whose Etrurian shades High overarched embower.

This "grand tour" wa.s still the fashion for educated young men down to the early days of our own fathers. Sometimes the" were Bo'iemiaus of tho type of Goldsmith himself, and his in-ein, "The Traveller," gives a good idea of his expeiier.ces-. His journeys were on foot, and he trusted to the chance hospitality ox foreigners as only a, "babe- of genius" c-ould have done. Bik though 1 ot many Englishmen mide their way through iStvitzeilacd, France, and Holland as Goldsmith did, by fiddling and begging, tueie were numbers who trampsd on fool, and saw a surprising lot of the world in doing so, falling in with primitive jieoeants good and bad, with unscrupulous rogues and impostors, fictitaous French counts and German barons, and having often several love affairs +hrown in. This was the time of '"Childe Harold"'" and "Don Juan,"' a-nd in actual life of Byron .and Shelley. Besides the students a n-e-K" class of tza-s-ellei-5 iras making its appearance, ;i much mere miscellaneous class. It was tlie^e people that Lever satirised in ''The Dodd Family." and we can see by that rovel how much the Continent has changed since ihz age of chivalry. Most Britishers .^eem to h.ive regarded it, cvs L?ver did. as a tract peopled by rogues and sharpers of every description, and peihaps there wa.s a good deal of vice stiried up by the French revolution, the Napoleonic wars, and the disorders that grew out of them. But p good deal of tli>e w evil attributed 1 io fcreigiifrs was sheer British prejudice. There was so little national intercourse then that on the Continent or in Britain a fo-ieigner was looked upon as lawful booty, oncl the ordinary laws of morality and humanity were hardly supposed to extend tc< him or her. We have not quite outlived that sfc-ige yet. But speaking &.s a nils, there is p. grEit deal of international couitu=y in Germany. Italy, and France. In Italy we might expect Eng-lish-speaking stt angers to receive politenesF, for the}' are popular in that country. s J"'he educated classes are aware of tbe good undei .-landing between Italy and England, and the por.ror classes see in them thebestow cis of hbeial tips, while cne and all appreciate the strong sympathy that .1 band of Englisliman and Englishwomen felt, for the Italians in then- struggle for natio^il existence, and they have generously forgotten th? fact that the dominant party in England were opposed to the en thusiasts. and did all they could to keep the Austrian tyranny in its place. The French people, who are always so sensitive to a change of sentiment, are in a more friendly frame of mind towards our nation than they have been for a very long time, though there still remains somethins^ antipathetic in the British and' the Gallic temperament. But in Germany and HolLmcl we are still very unpopular. I .should like to go into the question of the probable causes later on, but the fact itself seems to me undeniable. My German nam.3, the eompa.nio.nship cf a Germa'i friend, and some slight knovi ledge of the language made my personal experiences even of the Dutch pleasant, but several English ladies have complained of receiving rudeness in Holland, perhaps because that people are naturally rude, but chiefly, no doubt, because of the Bcot war. There are other causes in Geimanv, and I hav 5 bsen told of occasional outbursts of prejudice, but it is not displayed in rudeness, to Briiish travellers. The' people I found much the roughest and rudest in the five countries — Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Froi.ce — aro the >S^ j-sv ; it is not 11 ease of national prejudice v.ith them, but of sheer hoorishncss. I felt in spite of the lapse of a centuiy that it is still in these Alpine regions The Hide Corinthian boor Against the homeless stronger slmls tac dcor

There's the sneezy cold, tlie nneezy g£l{3, The tickler in the glottis : Tho chilly cold, the ki'iy cold. The cold that burning hot is ; Tho tearful cold, the fearful cold, The ono that all the lot is— Yet these be colds that none endure Who purchase OOBS' Gr.EAT PEPPER MIST Cl-EB.